On 4th June 1861 Warrnambool was the scene of a game of 'English football' in which two goals were scored. Shortly after the second of them the ball burst, bringing a premature end to the proceedings, with no victor declared. However, the sport itself appears to have been a winner, and today's Warrnambool Football Club traces its origins all the way back to that winter of 1861, making it among the oldest football clubs in Australia. Indeed, according to Ron Cole, Ron McCorkell, Harry Keilar and Ian Wright, authors of the recently published history of the Warrnambool Football Club, Birth Of The Blues, only Melbourne and Geelong are older.

As befits a club of such long standing, Warrnambool has been consistently successful. Its first recorded proper premiership came in 1913, in the Western District Football Association, and this was promptly added to the following year before any further premiership aspirations had to be laid aside because of the war. Warrnambool, in common with virtually all Victorian country football clubs, went into recess in 1915, and did not resume until 1920 when it adopted the new name of Warrnambool City. In 1924 Warrnambool City and South Warrnambool merged, with the resultant club -known, somewhat confusingly, as Warrnambool -claiming flags in 1924 and 1927. The merger partners split once more in 1928, with Warrnambool City reverting to its original name of Warrnambool.

In 1933 the Blues transferred from the Western District Football League, in which they had enjoyed premiership success two years earlier, to the Hampden Football League, which was just about to embark on its fourth season. Warrnambool has achieved unrivaled success in this competition, with its tally of twenty-three senior premierships more than double that of its nearest rival. Those premierships have arrived consistently at a rate of at least one per decade. The Blues have also been the only team to claim a hat trick of senior flags, a feat they have accomplished twice. After the second such instance, they went one better. Their most recent senior grade premiership was won in 2010 at the expense of South Warrnambool.

Tuesday 28 May 1861 a challenge was issued in the Warrnambool Examiner.